Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, left, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump attend a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) just got permission to scour an online system with highly sensitive immigration case data — including names, addresses and records of immigrant interactions with law enforcement — from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, according to a report.
Elon Musk’s “major reform” effort was allegedly granted access to the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Courts and Appeals System, or ECAS, by senior DOJ officials after a group of DOGE “advisors” requested permission, according to government documents obtained by The Washington Post.
DOJ staffers have reportedly been told that DOGE will be picking through the ECAS accounts with help from a private equity firm that has been linked to Musk and several of its members. At least six DOGE “advisors” have been given access, the Post reports.
Lynn Damiano Pearson, a senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, told the newspaper that DOGE is violating people’s right to privacy and other protections aimed at shielding both citizens and noncitizens.
“It really hearkens to what we’re seeing with Social Security, with the IRS, with data that was shared with an expectation of privacy,” Pearson said. She alleged that giving this level of access would ultimately have “very concerning impacts for immigrants, even ones who have specifically tried to comply with government policies and do everything right.”
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Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a government official familiar with ECAS confirmed to the Post that DOGE will be able to look up immigrants’ names, the identities of their lawyers and families, their addresses, and any interactions they have had with law enforcement in the past, whether they’ve been arrested or not.
“It’s every record of every interaction immigrants have had with the U.S. government in any way,” the official reportedly said.
In March, DOGE and the DOJ teamed up to create the JUST-DOGE team — made up of staffers from both organizations — which has been trying to uncover “savings and cost cutting measures,” per its description. The Post said it was unable to confirm whether the ECAS access that’s been granted to DOGE “advisors” last week was done in coordination with the JUST-DOGE team. Attempts by Law&Crime to reach the DOJ for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.
DOGE has tried accessing data for people living in the U.S. in various different ways since its creation earlier this year, one being through the Social Security Administration (SSA).
A Maryland federal judge last Thursday upheld an order to block DOGE from accessing non-anonymized personal SSA data; they also demanded that DOGE “disgorge and delete” any personally identifying data in their possession and remove any software or code that the Musk-led group may have installed or altered on SSA computer systems since gaining access.
The government appealed the restraining order to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but was rejected.
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